We Love Soaps' Nicholas Rodriguez Interview, Part I

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OLTL's Nicholas Rodriguez talks with After Elton

OLTL's Nicholas Rodriguez did a wonderful interview with AfterElton, and talked about baring all on the first day of work, the role he originally auditioned for, how his four-day role got extended into a recurring gig, working with Brett Claywell and much, much more. I encourage you to read the whole amazing article, but here are some excerpts:

AE: What was the audition process like to get the part?
NR: My very first audition for OLTL was a few months back. I auditioned for the role of Sky [ed note: Brett Claywell, who plays Kyle was first cast as Sky, but the role ultimately went to actor Scott Clifton]. That's the first time I met Frank Valentini [OLTL’s executive producer] and Ron [Carlivati, the show’s head writer]; after the audition process you meet the producers. I guess that wasn't the right fit, but interestingly enough, that's when Brett was there. And I think that's when Crystal Hunt (Stacy Morasco) was doing her test too.

A few months later, I get a call from my agent to come in and audition for this role of Griffin. I got the breakdown: he's Caucasian, good-looking, confident. So I go in and read for it, then we have the callbacks, and then another callback, and then we get to the final callback with Frank and Ron, and it's a room full of Caucasian guys. [laughs]

I'm just sitting there totally relaxed, thinking, "Clearly, I'm not going to get this. They're looking for somebody with blond hair and blue eyes. Lo and behold, later that afternoon, I get the call that says they picked me. I actually think the fact that I didn't think I stood a chance in hell, so I was just completely relaxed, and went in and did my thing, made the difference. The rest is history. It was just supposed to be this little four-episode arc originally, and now it's been expanded.

AE: What was the original plan for the character, and what has it grown into?
NR: I don't want to give away too much, and I don't really know what was going on in the writers' heads, but I definitely know that after those first four [episodes] were done, Frank said to me that they liked the way it was going and be prepared to stay around for a little bit. And I thought, "Great!“ although I didn't really know what that meant. I'd finished my four and I knew I'd had a really great time, and pretty much immediately I got called and they said they were going to write some more stuff so just hang loose.

A couple weeks went by, and then I got a call saying, "Okay, you're going to film all these episodes." And I got the scripts, and all of a sudden, I'm shooting with all these other people that weren't part of my original storyline. Originally, I was just there to be a third wheel to Kyle and Fish, which is still his main function, but all of a sudden they really expanded him. He now has a job, he has a last name, he's supposed to be an activist as well. So first time back after all that, I'm shooting with six-time Emmy-winner Erika Slezak (Victoria Buchanan). I was just like, "Okay! I didn't think that's where this was going."

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OLTL Tuesday Highlights

Overall a good episode today, in part thanks to the hot scenes in of Stacy seducing Schuyler wasn't too bad, I could have done without a Rex/Gigi romp on the floor, but it wasn't that bad. Layla finally finds out the truth about Fish, indirectly from Nick. We also see some Kyle/Cris screentime. As Tea is about to skip town possibly, Todd pours his heart out to her as they end the day by heading upstairs together. Meanwhile, Blair heads of to Tahiti.! Fish and John set a trap for bad-cop-helping-drug-thing Keaton. The first three clips correspond with the title, check Sky/Stacey and Gigi/Rex @ in the fourth clip (0:00-1:49), and the fifth clip (2:08-2:41, 5:11-5:39) There was a little bit more to it, but I couldn't get the clip.

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The Buches, Fishfaces and Morascos: Reality in Llanview Thursday

As I have noted earlier, I haven't really given OLTL credit in being basically the top soap in daytime, but after today and previous episodes this week, I'm firm standing behind that this soap is at the top of the daytime ladder. Compared to its nearest competitor, Y&R, OLTL can go to sadly dramatic then ecstatically hilarious, and back to a happy medium in between.

Again as I have noted before, Crystal Hunt and the Stacy storyline is improving, no thanks to JPL or FF, but to Hunt and Amanda Setton who were fantastic today and I liked dragging Fish into the scene too! I think Crystal Hunt is making sure Marcy Rylan won't be taking her job anytime soon, who replaced her when she left her old job! Hunt improves in every episode, and now slowly, but surely is at least attempting to living up to deserving her emmy-nod as GL's Lizzie. At first I was hesitant bringing on Amanda Setton on the scene as Kim, but now I'm glad it happened, and now the Stacy story doesn't even seem delusional as it once was.

Then I didn't like Nicholas Rodriguez as Nick as much as today as yesterday, mostly because his shirt was on and he didn't strip down in front of Fish. But he and Kyle weren't too shabby today, as Kyle opens up to him about Fish with the description "short, blond hair & cute." But that Layla walking in on Stacey and Fish after the earlier refuses to keep hold on to Rex and get pregnant. Tika Sumpter was on point, and she beat John-Paul Lavioser x100 in the facial expressions category when Kim told her they couldn't come into the apartment, but I'll get into that later. I'm hoping things change a little soon, because Fish is getting kind of old with all of this stuff, but definitely not Kyle! Brett Claywell brings it every time, and I'm not saying it's Scott Evans, or that it is the storyline of Fish denying his sexuality, I'm just recommending things be mixed up a bit. By mixing up I also hope Nick stays on longer. I began to enjoy Rex apologizing to Schuyler at the beginning until he started acting superficial again, and today JPL pulled out some facial expressions that I wasn't a big fan of, and if you follow me on twitter, I'm addicted to JPL's facial expressions!

Good thing I didn't have a quote of the day, or wrote down Tuc Watkins' lines today because I'd have a page full! The Buchanan scenes were awesome today, and the dialogue was spot on. I even sort of liked Jerry verDorn, whom I even said the other day wasn't one of my favorites as Clint Buchanan. Eddie Alderson was also great today, especially when the reveal came that Matthew asked his brother David's help in funding his trial, which followed Hillary B. Smith's Nora to lunge at her son-in-law! Matthew also agreed to help David for anything else he needs. Bo threatened to arrest Clint for shooting, only for ALL of them minus Matthew to run off David, Markko, and the rest of his crew, with yet another gunshot by Clint!

In other "Buches" news, fellow Buchanans Natalie and Jess had a sort of interesting day in which Jessica tried to communicate with Nash from the great beyond, and Brody tells Nat and Jared his theories on Jess's stalker!

Now to the highlights!

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